The Visitor
by Rigardo
Summary: A young man is running for his life in the woods, and his decision triggers a set of events that he could never have anticipated. Irene/OC


Disclaimer: I do not own Claymore.

**The Visitor**

A young man was running, he ran as fast as his two legs allowed him to, he was panting, his entire body aching from the wounds he fought so hard to ignore, he had never thought he would one day find himself running for his life.

It was beautiful, the enormous trees bathed by the sunset almost like the entire forest was glowing, the leaves dancing gently at the tune of the wind, despite the situation Rúben couldn't stop admiring the beauty that surrounded him.

He could hear it approach, it was like the woods went silent during the display of beauty, all that could be heard was the soft whisper of the winds against the leaves. He soon realized he only had two choices; stand and fight like he had all his life, or run and somehow pray to the gods that his human speed was enough to loose the inhuman assaulter.

_'Might as well go down fighting...'_

With his mind set the young man stopped and readied himself for what was bound to come.

He knew the chances of dying were high, after all Yoma were faster and stronger, their bodies built to hunt humans, the only advantage he had was his sword training and his trusted zweihänder, capable of rivaling in size with the famous claymores of the silver eyed slayers, although he would never be able to outclass one of them in battle his sword skills were still said to be spectacular, and he was hoping they were 'spectacular' enough to grant him a victory.

"Oh? Stopped running already?" slowly the figure of another young man approached him.

The young man couldn't bring himself to look at the beast in front of him, he knew if he did he wouldn't be able to fight against it. It looked like him, it sounded like him... But it wasn't him... Despite knowing this Rúben also knew that if he saw its face he wouldn't be able to swing his sword at it.

"What's wrong? You started running all of a sudden I thought you wanted to play Ru, did you get bored? Maybe we can play another ga-"

"SHUT UP! Don't You Dare Talk Like Him!" he had made his biggest mistake, he lost control of his emotions.

Within a few seconds Rúben dropped his zweihänder and found himself struggling for air as the Yoma had a firm grip on his throat. "That's not nice of you, why are you saying something like that Ru?" despite those words it had a grin plastered on its now disfigured face and it kept on putting pressure of the young man's neck.

_'Crap... So this is it... !'_ His eyes widened and soon a planned formed on his head, if he could only get the beast to lower him a few inches...

"... D..." Rúben struggled to talk and like a child playing with its food the Yoma relaxed its grip only to see its prey fall down and cough struggling for air as a wave of purple liquid bathed the air.

"...!" it was gone! His arm was gone! But that was preposterous!

Looking confused the beast nearly lost its head as a longsword swayed by him. Leaping back the Yoma finally realized what happened. "Smart... Beyond smart. Spectacular!"

"Not really... You're just stupid." he knew he was probably pushing his luck but then again he was only alive thanks to lady luck, if he hadn't seen his sword lying near his feet he would probably be dead instead of bragging about how he ripped a Yoma's arm off.

"Tricking me so you could get a chance to kick the sword to your hand and strike... And on top of it all to be able to pull it off in such a short space of time... That's my Ru!"

It was smiling... That was not how it was supposed to react after having its arm chopped off! Somehow that scared the living hell out of him, if it had screamed, or attacked... But it was smiling, and that triggered not only fear but hesitance and doubt, could there really be such a monster that losing a limb didn't matter to it?

_'Damn it! Keep it together Rúben you ripped its arm off... Yet it's smiling... No! It's just bluffing.'_

Holding the zweihänder with only one hand the young man lunged forward and aimed for the head swinging the great sword with as much strength as he still had left, unfortunately the Yoma were dangerous even if they only had one arm.

The gruesome beast dodged the sword leaping behind Rúben.

Shifting his weight to one leg the young man used all of his momentum to rotate in less than a second and swing his sword to cut down everything that stood behind him. However there was no contact, he stood there looking at the Yoma that somehow was standing feet away from him.

"How... !" before he could even begin to think of how things had turned how that way he was assaulted by an intense pain near his abdomen. The Yoma had stretched his claws and like harpoons they had impaled the young sword fighter.

His eyes slowly started to shut. As he fell down Rúben took in his surroundings, the zweihänder lying next to him, the beautiful show that nature had been displaying for him, the wounded animal that looked at him with starving eyes, and a cloaked figure...

_'Dammit! If the Yoma sees that guy he's going to turn into the thing's dessert! I've got to lure its attention...'_

Forcing his wounded and exhausted body to move Rúben with a last desperate move got on his knees and grabbed the zweihänder hurling it like a lance at the monster's chest, however his body was well beyond its limits and the blade only scratched its shoulder

"Well, well, aren..." whatever it was that the Yoma said it was never registered in Rúben's brain as it shut down before the beast had time to finish its speech.

_'Crap...'_

xxx

Never in her many years of life had she seen a human fight so fiercely against a Yoma, when attacked by Yoma every human just stood still shaking in their boots, truly pathetic, but not him...

_'The way he chopped its arm off... Superb!' _That wasn't the work of an amateur, if his opponent was human it probably would have been over in less than a few seconds, but unfortunately for him he was fighting a monster. _'And only monsters can defeat monsters.' _readying herself to help the unfortunate warrior she saw his fading eyes look her direction.

What happened next surprised her, he forced his marred body up grabbing the exquisite sword in the process and sent it flying in the monster's direction as if trying to keep the beast's attention on himself.

She had been surprised by the young man not once but twice now, an interesting character he was, she didn't help travelers in distress, but somehow he had earned her attention.

Releasing her yoki to use her Quick-Sword technique would probably alert the other warriors that she was alive, she knew every generation had a warrior that excelled at sensing Yoma energy so she would not be using it. But a simple Yoma wasn't enough to force her to use such a move, tightening her grip on her concealed weapon she dashed towards the Yoma.

Surprised the monster dodged the assailant nearly losing its head in the process, that was twice in less than an hour.

"Who the hell are you?" the beast yelled with his distorted voice. "I guess it doesn't really matter I'll eat you first and leave Ru for later."

There was something strange about this creature, Yoma didn't act so personal towards a victim... Whatever it was she wasn't going to ask the thing for its motives. She watched as the monster aimed at her abdomen, if she was human she would probably have tried to protect herself but she was different, she wasn't human, and so she could read the real attack that was coming.

It was so easy. Stretching her arm she waited for the monster's momentum to do the rest.

And just like she had predicted the attack directed at her abdomen never came, instead the Yoma moving at high speed made contact with her blade losing its head in the process.

Irene took on last look at the slain carcass making sure it was down for good and then directed her attention to the fallen sword fighter.

xxx

"Stop squirming!" Irene could admire his endurance in the battlefield and his courage, but in the end every human always whined over the smallest wounds. She had been carrying the unconscious boy for a while and nearly dropped him several times. In truth this was because she was lacking one arm, but he wasn't helping constantly trying to move away.

Soon enough they arrived at their destination, a small wooden house with a couple of trees around it, there were a few farming tools near the door and a some chopped wood that Irene had cut herself. She had chosen this place because it was rare to have visitors, but even from time to time she saw travelers.

Walking inside the woman threw the still unconscious boy onto her bed and leaned his sword against the wall near her wardrobe.

Looking at the passed out figure on her bed she wondered what to do next, Irene had never nursed a human being, specially one that had such wounds, she knew a Claymore would be jumping around with small wounds like that but a human being was different...

_'So fragile...'_ She figured the first step would be to stop the bleeding, if anything it would help keep her sheets clean.

Turning the boy her direction she finally had a clear view of him, he was young, no older than 20, his light brown hair was spiky and wild, he had a gentle face, however that was when he was sleeping she was sure he wouldn't show this side of him often, being a warrior she knew that one must act intimidating, he would look like any other kid if it wasn't for his belongings, a former white mantle that covered him from his neck to his feet and the large sword he carried.

Sighing the long haired woman threw the blood stained white garment to the ground and removed his dark shirt so she could gain access to his wounds. When she saw his skin she thought it was rare seeing such a young boy with a body like that, he had several small scars, no doubt inflicted by swords, and a massive scar that went from his right shoulder to his abdomen.

_'Maybe not so fragile...' _Grabbing some bandages from a basket near the bed Irene started tending to his wounds wondering who the boy was.

xxx

"_That was amazing, beyond amazing! Spectacular!" _

"_Still too slow, I take too much time shifting my weight. If an enemy was behind me I'd be dead..."_

"_You've got to be joking! You're the greatest. I bet you could even put those Silver Eyed Witches on their knees!"_

_Rúben looked at the boy next to him curiously. _

"_There you go again Zawi, why would I want to fight a Claymore in the first place?"_

"_Because we're knights we need to be ready for anything... Anyways, you're sword skills are spectacular!"_

"_Not yet we are not."_

"_Please. You'll ace the test." _

_Sighing Rúben stabbed the ground next to his friend with his zweihänder and looked up, he saw something, something approaching, but he couldn't tell what it was until it was too late... _

_Yoma._

"_**Not Good Enough Though."**_

xxx

Rúben's eyes burst open, he was sweating... _'A dream?'_

He quickly scanned his surroundings, however he couldn't tell much as his view was slightly blurred, he was in a small house, there was a wardrobe near the door where his zweihänder was leaning, near the bed he was lying on there were a chair and two baskets one was filled with used bandages and the other was filled with new ones.

_'I was saved...?' _Someone had saved him and had taken care of him, but who? Even if someone found him dealing with a Yoma was... Not to mention he was minutes away from being the monster's snack.

Dragging himself out of bed he found that walking wasn't something he could do at the moment, just standing up was causing him pain. He gave up the idea of exploring and let himself fall on the bed.

Looking at the wooden ceiling he found himself wondering if he wasn't just dead waiting for the gods to decide his destiny. He mused about the idea for a while longer but was brought back as the door opened, struggling to get up Rúben eventually decided it was best to just stay down.

Walking still a few feet away was a woman, not just any woman, her most defining features were her long silver hair and silver eyes, truth be told his eyes were still foggy so that was all he could make out but that was enough to easily recognize her as one of the Silver Eyed Slayers, a Claymore.

He had heard of them being half breeds, half monsters, in fact even Zawi often spoke of them and how Rúben could beat them. It wasn't common hearing kind words about the so called Claymores, in the eyes of the people they were just tools to deal with Yoma, hated tools at that. Personally Rúben had never really thought much about them, he always figured if a Yoma attacked a village he was staying in he would be more than enough to handle the thing... How arrogant of him.

"..." brought back from his musings the young warrior shifted his attention to the woman that was now staring at him.

He had heard of Claymores being scary, emitting some kind of deadly aura, and there was no doubt, the woman in front of him embodied the rumored aura, but he recognized it immediately, it was the presence of a person that had been in the battlefield countless times.

Rúben examined the woman further, long cloak, there was no doubt she had been the one he tried to save. The warrior sighed and laughed internally at his foolishness, in the end she save him.

"You seem better, can you stand?" her voice was soft yet hard, sweet yet bitter... It was hard to tell her emotions, but he couldn't really see her features so it was hard to tell if she was scowling or smiling, either way he figured he'd have to answer sooner or later.

"I can stand, just don't ask me to walk..." Standing might actually be out of the table too, he started to feel tired and no matter how much he fought to keep his eyes open it was a losing battle "... Thank you..."

The silver eyed woman looked at the warrior and couldn't help but let out the smallest of smiles, she had already forgotten the last time she was thanked.

xxx

"Ngh..." yawning Rúben woke up and noticed he was alone, next to him was a third basket filled with fruits.

After feeding himself he found that he now had the strength too venture outside, not to mention his eyesight was improved as well, taking small steps the young man opened the door and realized he had absolutely no idea where he was, which was no surprise taking into account he had been out for gods knew how long, but he still hoped he would have been able to recognize the area.

"It has been a while, feeling better?" a female voice greeted him from behind and again he found himself admiring a Claymore's skills, usually he had absolute awareness of his surroundings and this time it was no different, yet she still managed to go unnoticed.

"A while?" he asked turning around "How long have I..."

Speechless, that was the only way to describe him, with his eyesight reestablished he had a perfect view of the woman in front of him, not to mention she wasn't wearing her cloak, she was wearing a rather revealing leather outfit. Somehow the rumors forgot to add one little details to their description of the scary evil Claymores.

_'Stunning...'_ he was looking at one of the most beautiful women he had ever laid eyes on, the woman in front of him screamed 'beauty' at the top of her lungs and he heard it loud and clear, her pale skin and beautiful face... There was something else, she was missing something her left arm... It was gone.

"You have been unconscious for four days now, you were lucky, I have no medical knowledge I just patched you up and waited to see if you could heal naturally like one of us..." she looked at him with the same serious expression she had since he saw her "What's wrong?"

"No n-nothing.. Nothing at all..."

Rúben was powerful sword fighter, and if needed an outstanding strategist, despite his young age, but something that he couldn't get rid of was his shyness. _'Great, phenomenon sword fighter, brilliant strategist, but I still can't talk with a cute girl without stuttering...'_

"Anyways what's your name?"

"Huh.. R-Rúben.." _'Pathetic...'_

"Well, Rúben I don't think you're fully healed but you're free to go."

In truth his wounds were healing up nicely, he could move without feeling too much pain, there really wasn't a reason for him to stay, he figured he'd stay the one more day so he could stock up and then go to Rabona.

"If you mind... Could I stay one more day?" at this request the Claymore seemed surprised, he started to wonder if he was asking too much, maybe she just wanted him out so she could go about her life. "J-just because I need to stock up, Rabona is still-"

"I don't mind. I was just surprised you weren't already running for the hills." Rúben was surprised at first but he soon understood what she meant, most people would rather fight a grizzly bear than stay in the company of a Claymore for more than five minutes.

"Th-thanks..."

xxx

Despite feeling alright his body was still beyond exhausted so the young warrior went to bed in the middle of the afternoon. Next morning he woke up and saw his host cutting wood with her claymore. It was incredible, if something deserved to be called spectacular it was that, speed elegance and strength combined in every swing.

Rúben stood there looking in awe at his host, until he realized she had stopped and was looking at him.

Walking away the boy took on the task of gathering fruits, the way to Rabona was mostly wasteland and he was sure he would need a fair amount of food to survive, unfortunately too much food could also be a problem...

"Ugh... I wonder if I went a little overboard..." Several minutes later Rúben looked at several bags of fruit with a helpless expression haunting his face "They all looked tasty..."

Sighing the boy wondered what to do. There was no way he could carry so much food through a wasteland.

xxx

It was already past dinnertime, not that it mattered to his host, she didn't seem to have anything prepared to eat.

"Hmm... I figured you might need some food s-so I brought some along for you too... haha..." the claymore was looking at him with her usual stoic expression but somehow he swore he could see a "yeah right!" look in his direction. "A-anyways... What's your name?"

"Why do you need to know? You will depart tomorrow." that answer might have been considered hostile by some people but despite that she maintained her calm and serious demeanor, she had no intention of sounding rude or hostile.

"I was just trying to start a conversation."

"Start a conversation... Who was the person that Yoma took over?"

Looking surprised and horrified Rúben was left gasping for air at the question, was she trying to piss him off? Or was she just insensitive? Either way it did the trick.

"And how can you know I even knew the guy?"

"You hesitated."

"No, I didn't. I went at him with all I got. I'm sorry if my weakness looked like I hesitated!"

"Not weakness... After you cut its arm, he was left in shock, and you had enough time to get a clean hit at its head, however you hesitated and you missed when you did decide to swing your sword."

There was no way he could counter that, simply because it was the truth, he had hesitated, but who wouldn't?

"..."

"Or maybe you just wanted to die and saw a quick way out, going down fighti-"

"It Was Zawi What The Hell Was I Supposed To Do!" at this point he just didn't care anymore, why did he have to keep his 'happy face' on when he was clearly feeling like crap. "I let my best friend get killed and the worst part was that... I DIDN'T EVEN NOTICE! I WAS WALKING AROUND WITH A MONSTER PRETENDING TO BE MY FRIEND FOR OVER A MONTH AND I DIDN'T NOTICE!"

Rúben tried hard to bury the memories, he had acted cheerfully and even played a little while picking fruit for his trip, but the truth was that no matter how much he tried it was still there, the fact he couldn't tell Zawi apart from a man-eating monster, and the fact that he wasn't able of protecting him.

"I underst-"

"Don't! Don't try to make me feel better by saying you understand... You're a Claymore, you could tell if a Yoma was anywhere near you..."

"My name is Irene."

"What?"

"You asked for my name. My name is Irene." Irene, the woman who had saved him and had taken care of him was now showing him what he assumed was supposed to be a smile, but the woman was too serious, it turned out as a 'serious smile' which made him laugh. "Is there something wrong with my name?"

"N-no... It's a beautiful name."

"I killed my best friend once, not just her, many many more people died because of me." Rúben had no idea why she was telling him this or where did it come from all of a sudden but regardless he gave the Claymore his full attention.

"Her name was Teresa, and it was my fault she died... She had broken the code of the Organization and our four best warriors were sent to deal with her. At first my intention was to kill her, she had broken the code and that couldn't be forgiven."

The light of the fire illuminated the beautiful face of the elf-like woman and despite the beauty of the scene Rúben couldn't help but see the sadness in her face.

"But after I tasted defeat at her hands I realized I was wrong, she was still my friend and her reasons for breaking the code were pure."

"Then why..." he started but didn't finish in her face he could see she would tell him.

"I took her with us... A warrior with monstrous potential, little did I know she truly would become a monster... Like you were unable to tell your friend apart from a monster I was unable to read the signs that she would become a monster... And when she did she killed her, she killed Teresa, she killed two other warriors and only the gods know how many others she killed. I survived by chance..." grabbing her left shoulder Irene lowered her head "Not unharmed though."

"Irene, that wasn't-"

"It was my fault, and I was too afraid to go after her, to fight her... I still am, that's why I ran from the Organization and have been hiding here ever since."

"I can't forgive myself for what I did to her, I wish I had died, but the gods didn't allow it, they want me to suffer for what happened as it was my fault, I want to -" Irene never got a chance to finish as Rúben covered his lips with hers. He had kissed her.

Rúben couldn't understand what made him do it, oh he was brave no doubt, but if someone asked him if he would ever do anything like what he just did he would have answered that he wished to live a long life.

It might have been his heart that drove him to it, after all Irene was the most beautiful woman he had ever met, and he liked her, when she opened to him he knew he truly liked her. Whatever it was he couldn't control it and she couldn't fight it, because if she wanted Rúben would already be halfway through the wasteland to Rabona, yet he was still there and very much alive, his eyes were closed but he could see it, Irene's calm and serious expression kept to hide the burden she had been carrying was gone, and he was the reason for it, even if just for a little he relieved her from that tremendous burden...

xxx

Her lips parted and she allowed Rúben entrance, what she was thinking she did not know, her body moved on its own and soon she found her arm holding the young man close to her she didn't want him to let go, she didn't want it to end.

His warmth, she wanted it. His kindness, she needed it. His love, she yearned for it.

"Irene, I love you." with those words she let go of the remaining ropes that kept her from losing control, she succumbed to passion.

xxx

"Will we meet again?"

"Definitely."

He started to head towards the woods, but he stopped, turning around he dropped his sword and luggage holding the long haired beauty close and leaned in for one final kiss.

It was another beautiful sunset, and again the forest seemed to glow as all life stood still and all noise ceased, only the sound of the leaves could be heard as the two lovers expressed through actions what would be impossible to express through words.

Not even a word as powerful as 'Love' could begin to explain the depth of their feelings for each other.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Claymore, it's one of my greatest passions what else can I say?

Here's something funny, most people think that writing a story with several chapters is harder than writing a small one with only one chapter.

And that's wrong, it's exactly the same as in music. The bass is not easier to play than the guitar just because it has less strings. I know, I've tried it.

As long as you have an idea of what you are aiming for you can write a whole lot of chapters with no purpose and then have a breakthrough and start focusing more on the main story, basically in a long story you can create 'filler chapters' while in this kind of story you have to put everything you want together in one go which is hard, specially if you are aiming for something a little deeper.

But yeah, I got a lot of trouble writing this, some of you might even laugh and think something like this isn't so hard to create... Well I guess I'm just not as skilled as most.

I also noticed OC's are not all that popular but oh well I gave it my best shot and tried to make him a good character, in the Claymore fanfic universe the OC's are usually overpowered beasts who can rip through a mountain, and that's just something I find unappealing so I tried to make mine as human as possible without turning him into a crybaby like Raki. (**No offense to Raki lovers.**)

Anyways, thanks to Evangelion 2.0 OST for inspiration.

And! Thanks for reading all the way to the end, it makes it all worth it.

**The End**


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